This book presents recent research on predictive econometrics and big data. Gathering edited papers presented at the 11th International Conference of the Thailand Econometric Society (TES2018), held in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on January 10-12, 2018, its main focus is on predictive techniques – which directly aim at predicting economic phenomena; and big data techniques – which enable us to handle the enormous amounts of data generated by modern computers in a reasonable time. The book also discusses the applications of more traditional statistical techniques to econometric problems. Econometrics is a branch of economics that employs mathematical (especially statistical) methods to analyze economic systems, to forecast economic and financial dynamics, and to develop strategies for achieving desirable economic performance. It is therefore important to develop data processing techniques that explicitly focus on prediction. The more data we have, the better our predictions will be. As such, these techniques are essential to our ability to process huge amounts of available data.

This book surveys big data tools used in macroeconomic forecasting and addresses related econometric issues, including how to capture dynamic relationships among variables; how to select parsimonious models; how to deal with model uncertainty, instability, non-stationarity, and mixed frequency data; and how to evaluate forecasts, among others. Each chapter is self-contained with references, and provides solid background information, while also reviewing the latest advances in the field. Accordingly, the book offers a valuable resource for researchers, professional forecasters, and students of quantitative economics.

Get up to speed on the application of machine learning approaches in macroeconomic research. This book brings together economics and data science. Author Tshepo Chris Nokeri begins by introducing you to covariance analysis, correlation analysis, cross-validation, hyperparameter optimization, regression analysis, and residual analysis. In addition, he presents an approach to contend with multi-collinearity. He then debunks a time series model recognized as the additive model. He reveals a technique for binarizing an economic feature to perform classification analysis using logistic regression. He brings in the Hidden Markov Model, used to discover hidden patterns and growth in the world economy. The author demonstrates unsupervised machine learning techniques such as principal component analysis and cluster analysis. Key deep learning concepts and ways of structuring artificial neural networks are explored along with training them and assessing their performance. The Monte Carlo simulation technique is applied to stimulate the purchasing power of money in an economy. Lastly, the Structural Equation Model (SEM) is considered to integrate correlation analysis, factor analysis, multivariate analysis, causal analysis, and path analysis. After reading this book, you should be able to recognize the connection between econometrics and data science. You will know how to apply a machine learning approach to modeling complex economic problems and others beyond this book. You will know how to circumvent and enhance model performance, together with the practical implications of a machine learning approach in econometrics, and you will be able to deal with pressing economic problems. What You Will Learn Examine complex, multivariate, linear-causal structures through the path and structural analysis technique, including non-linearity and hidden states Be familiar with practical applications of machine learning and deep learning in econometrics Understand theoretical framework and hypothesis development, and techniques for selecting appropriate models Develop, test, validate, and improve key supervised (i.e., regression and classification) and unsupervised (i.e., dimension reduction and cluster analysis) machine learning models, alongside neural networks, Markov, and SEM models Represent and interpret data and models Who This Book Is For Beginning and intermediate data scientists, economists, machine learning engineers, statisticians, and business executives

This open access book covers the use of data science, including advanced machine learning, big data analytics, Semantic Web technologies, natural language processing, social media analysis, time series analysis, among others, for applications in economics and finance. In addition, it shows some successful applications of advanced data science solutions used to extract new knowledge from data in order to improve economic forecasting models. The book starts with an introduction on the use of data science technologies in economics and finance and is followed by thirteen chapters showing success stories of the application of specific data science methodologies, touching on particular topics related to novel big data sources and technologies for economic analysis (e.g. social media and news); big data models leveraging on supervised/unsupervised (deep) machine learning; natural language processing to build economic and financial indicators; and forecasting and nowcasting of economic variables through time series analysis. This book is relevant to all stakeholders involved in digital and data-intensive research in economics and finance, helping them to understand the main opportunities and challenges, become familiar with the latest methodological findings, and learn how to use and evaluate the performances of novel tools and frameworks. It primarily targets data scientists and business analysts exploiting data science technologies, and it will also be a useful resource to research students in disciplines and courses related to these topics. Overall, readers will learn modern and effective data science solutions to create tangible innovations for economic and financial applications.

This volume explores dynamic factor model specification, asymptotic and finite-sample behavior of parameter estimators, identification, frequentist and Bayesian estimation of the corresponding state space models, and applications.

Introduction.Big data for twenty-first-century economic statistics: the future is now /Katharine G. Abraham, Ron S. Jarmin, Brian C. Moyer, and Matthew D. Shapiro --Toward comprehensive use of big data in economic statistics.Reengineering key national economic indicators /Gabriel Ehrlich, John Haltiwanger, Ron S. Jarmin, David Johnson, and Matthew D. Shapiro ;Big data in the US consumer price index: experiences and plans /Crystal G. Konny, Brendan K. Williams, and David M. Friedman ;Improving retail trade data products using alternative data sources /Rebecca J. Hutchinson ;From transaction data to economic statistics: constructing real-time, high-frequency, geographic measures of consumer spending /Aditya Aladangady, Shifrah Aron-Dine, Wendy Dunn, Laura Feiveson, Paul Lengermann, and Claudia Sahm ;Improving the accuracy of economic measurement with multiple data sources: the case of payroll employment data /Tomaz Cajner, Leland D. Crane, Ryan A. Decker, Adrian Hamins-Puertolas, and Christopher Kurz --Uses of big data for classification.Transforming naturally occurring text data into economic statistics: the case of online job vacancy postings /Arthur Turrell, Bradley Speigner, Jyldyz Djumalieva, David Copple, and James Thurgood ;Automating response evaluation for franchising questions on the 2017 economic census /Joseph Staudt, Yifang Wei, Lisa Singh, Shawn Klimek, J. Bradford Jensen, and Andrew Baer ;Using public data to generate industrial classification codes /John Cuffe, Sudip Bhattacharjee, Ugochukwu Etudo, Justin C. Smith, Nevada Basdeo, Nathaniel Burbank, and Shawn R. Roberts --Uses of big data for sectoral measurement.Nowcasting the local economy: using Yelp data to measure economic activity /Edward L. Glaeser, Hyunjin Kim, and Michael Luca ;Unit values for import and export price indexes: a proof of concept /Don A. Fast and Susan E. Fleck ;Quantifying productivity growth in the delivery of important episodes of care within the Medicare program using insurance claims and administrative data /John A. Romley, Abe Dunn, Dana Goldman, and Neeraj Sood ;Valuing housing services in the era of big data: a user cost approach leveraging Zillow microdata /Marina Gindelsky, Jeremy G. Moulton, and Scott A. Wentland --Methodological challenges and advances.Off to the races: a comparison of machine learning and alternative data for predicting economic indicators /Jeffrey C. Chen, Abe Dunn, Kyle Hood, Alexander Driessen, and Andrea Batch ;A machine learning analysis of seasonal and cyclical sales in weekly scanner data /Rishab Guha and Serena Ng ;Estimating the benefits of new products /W. Erwin Diewert and Robert C. Feenstra.

This book offers an overview of state-of-the-art econometric techniques, with a special emphasis on financial econometrics. There is a major need for such techniques, since the traditional way of designing mathematical models – based on researchers’ insights – can no longer keep pace with the ever-increasing data flow. To catch up, many application areas have begun relying on data science, i.e., on techniques for extracting models from data, such as data mining, machine learning, and innovative statistics. In terms of capitalizing on data science, many application areas are way ahead of economics. To close this gap, the book provides examples of how data science techniques can be used in economics. Corresponding techniques range from almost traditional statistics to promising novel ideas such as quantum econometrics. Given its scope, the book will appeal to students and researchers interested in state-of-the-art developments, and to practitioners interested in using data science techniques.